Tag Archives: freedom filer

Listen to what I have done today and you be the judge. For anyone who may happen to be reading this who doesn’t know me, I recently quit my marketing job after 15 years. I have never not worked in my life. At first it was going well b/c I had lots of freelance stuff that was taking up time while my boys were in school (which for my little one is just 4 hours a day). But, a lot of that has tapered off, and here’s what I found myself doing today.

1. As I think I have mentioned previously, I like sharing my opinion. As such I fill out a lot of online surveys. One survey that I completed qualified me for a follow-up phone call where they asked if I would be willing to download an app at iPoll and go to different stores and take surveys. For my effort/opinion I would accrue money that I could use to buy things on Amazon.com. Hoping to support my reading habit, I readily downloaded the app. My first “mission” as they call it, was to go to the Wal-Mart near my house and activate the survey so that I could the see what I was supposed to do. It recognizes where you are by GPS and won’t actually activate the survey until you are in the store. I entered Wal-Mart this morning and went to activate my mission. However, it said “You must be in the store. You are 1.63 miles away from the location.” But I wasn’t, I was in the store. I knew there was another Wal-Mart in Chelsea, but that was further than six miles away. After several minutes of head scratching I figured out the problem. We used to have a Wal-Mart where Lowes currently is. Somehow the iPoll system still thought our Wal-Mart was at the old location. Therefore, it was impossible for me to activate the survey. But did I let that deter me? Oh, no. I got in my car and drove 6.2 miles to the Chelsea Wal-Mart where I could activate the survey. (I did have regular shopping that I needed to do too.) So the survey wanted me to go to the refrigerated dough aisle, take some pictures of the display and answer a bunch of questions about the products on the shelf. For this I received $5.00 credit. At the end of the survey it said if I would buy a certain item that I indicated I liked and take it home, cook it and have my family try it, and answer another survey they would give me an additional $15.00 credit. I was going to buy the product anyway so I agreed.

So what I gathered from my visit is that Pepperidge Farm is getting in to the refrigerated dough market. And, from the looks of it they have some pretty yummy products. Two that I purchased were Savory Cheddar Biscuits and Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Rolls. Apparently this is a soft launch(or else their marketing department sucks) as I could not find any images on their website to show you. Although the products look really yummy the packaging really doesn’t stand out on the shelf. The packaging is mainly purple and that does happen to be my favorite color, but what it does not do is stand out on a shelf already crowded with lots of blue packaging (Pillsbury and Great Value). What does stand out is Nestle’s garish bright yellow packaging.

2. After this detour to the alternate Wal-Mart location, I was late to lunch at Ragtime with my Dad. On the way there my phone dinged (not with a call from the casting directors at Hollyood Game Night) but an alert from my iPoll app telling me that they saw I was near Valleydale Village and they had another survey that I could do there. At this point I started to feel a little bit like Mae in The Circle but it’s not like I had to “go transparent” or anything so I was still cool with it. (Read the book to understand reference.) On my way back from lunch I stopped in the location it indicated a Winn-Dixie, but once I was in there and starting the survey (on Toastinos snack products) I realized the Winn-Dixie was going out of business and therefore was not stocking new products, so I abandoned the mission and went to get in carpool line. Don’t worry I will go to Publix tomorrow to take it!

3. I decided Monday afternoon that if Hollywood Game Night was going to pick me they would have already called. Also I read that the new season was only picked up for 10 episodes, meaning they just need to select 20 people out of tons that apply. So, I reactivated my game show quest and researched how to apply to Family Feud and Wheel of Fortune. I tried to find out how to apply to The Pyramid, but have been unable to figure it out.

After this is was time to go to the bus stop, do homework and get ready for baseball.

In defense of not working I did finish my Freedom Filer project. I won’t lie. It was harder than I wanted it to be and took me a long time to get all of the folders prepared and all of the paper wrangled into the appropriate file. But now that I am finished, there is a place fore every piece of paper that enters this house, so it makes it much easier to keep the house de-cluttered. I am cooking more and as a result my family is eating out much less, which has to be a little bit of money savings. I am exercising consistently and I am significantly less stressed. The downside to being less stressed is that I am fatter. I think the heightened level of anxiety helped to burn more calories each day.

Whelp! Here I am . Over the past few weeks I have considered the idea of (re)starting a blog. For some reason I have a compelling need to share my opinions on things with the world. I never met a survey that I didn’t like. Testing out a new drug, sign me up. Book reviews, yes! Trip Advisor, absolutely. Good or bad service at the Taco Bell drive thru, I’ll let you know – and on and on and on. Social Media is a godsend for someone like me. At least I can feel like I am putting my opinion out there, whether or not it makes a difference to anyone!

Perhaps the need to now express myself in an environment that allows longer than 140 characters is due to my recent transition to freelance marketer/ at home mom after 16 years. It has been a relatively easy transition as I have still doing some part-time work from home, but now things are slowing down a little, as my replacement at my old position started a couple of weeks ago and has assumed most of my former duties. At any rate here I am.

I told B that I have been so busy each day, I haven’t gotten to any of my really big at home projects as something always inevitably comes up. He said that I wouldn’t be doing a lot of the things I am doing now if I was still working and he is so right. One such thing is something that I can’t quite believe I ordered on my own volition and that I am actually excited about. It is a filing system. What, you say? I am excited about a filing system? Yep, and here’s why.

At 38 my mom still comes and has to clean and straighten my house when ever she visits (which is often and we love it). I have always been a pack-rat. I have a box of every note anyone has written me since 3rd grade in my attic. I married an only child who anthropomorphizes practically everything he has ever owned and we produced a child who may be headed to being featured in his own Hoarders episode. We are not by nature neat and orderly minimalists. And one of our big problems is paper, paper, everywhere!

Enter FreedomFiler www.freedomfiler.com a self-described “self-purging filing system that once you start using you will never again have to take time out of your life for cleaning out or reorganizing files!” I like it people, because that is stuff that my people and I are not good at!

I am just beginning the process, have purchased my hanging files, file folders and binder clips and my labels recently arrived. We are converting our “formal living room” (sidebar: please tell me who uses those – what a waste of space in the house -” oh, hello guest, please come and sit in my formal living room and we can chat over some hot tea and crumpets.”) into a home office and I hope to have the new filing system ready for the transition.

I will keep you apprised on my steps toward organization. It is not impossible as stranger things have happened – due to Pinterest I have started cooking now. Now if I start breaking out the fine china regularly, it might be cause for concern!

Don’t worry, future topics won’t all be on filing systems. Just things I like, things I think about throughout the day, and things that fire me up.